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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

We were able to spend a big junk of Saturday scraping and had hoped to do the same on Sunday - things did not turn out that way though. Sunday was a 'down' day and Monday & Tuesday were filled with appointments in the big city.

I can't believe just how little I get to the big city anymore. It has changed so much but it also reminded me as to 'why' I don't like going so often!

Anyway, tomorrow is another day and hopefully I'll get a good chunk of time to scrape.

While SWMBO worked on the lower levels of the paint that couldn't be gotten with the Paint Shaver I worked on the upper areas. She used the infrared doohickey and I used the heat gun.

For your viewing pleasure here are some pictures.

This is the corner area I worked on. It's the top, far north eastern section of the dining room bay window.

I've been dreading this section since we bought this place. It is a very tight section and awkward for ladder placement. II couldn't open the ladder up, all I could do was lean it against the top of the window.

Look at all those cobwebs!!

Here's a nice close-up for ya'.

It was hard for me to get the heat gun, scraper, and my small hands in there. On top of this, in order to get a good look at what I was doing I had to cock my head to the side while doing it.

There's more of the light blue color!!

The layer is so thin it's hard to get a patch of it intact. This spot has so fare been the best I've gotten. BTW - it's no bigger than a dime!

Okay - take a look at this!

It was hard to do, but I got a layer of the white paint off to see the original layer. It appears to be a straw color and I like it.

Now, to be realistic, if this is the original color, it might not be the original shade. With the paint having been placed on top of ceder clapboards, and having sat there for 100+ years, the shade could have been effected.

However, we are leaning towards a pale straw color for the new paint.

For grins-n-giggles I got a shot of the bottom edge as well.

Now for the disappointing part...

It took me more than three hours to get to this point.

The picture only shows about 70% of what i got done, but it will give you an idea.

The hardest part, other than that blasted corner, was the molding on top of the window.

The rest of what got scraped off were the sections of the clapboard that was next to the window jambs that couldn't be removed with the Paint Shaver. Along with these spots were the edges of the jambs the the clapboard butt-up against.

Just thought I'd throw this one in for fun. It's not often people view a porch ceiling from this vantage point.

To the right is the top of the main window in the bay. I did get a start on it that day and hope to pick up here tomorrow.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Well...unfortunately the house scraping has not been going as fast a planned. Other things have gotten in the way; such as a yard in terrible need of upkeep as well has very high winds and rain.

So, I've used the Paint Shaver Pro as much as possible around the porch area, with the exception of the columns. The rest has to be scraped by hand. For this we are using the heat gun and the infrared doohickey as well as good ol' muscle power.

All this hand scraping is taking a lot of time and our arms are sore. Hopefully, next week will see more progress.

Here is the south side of the house.

The reason the trim around the door and windows isn't scraped is due to the aluminum frames still attached. Once we take those down (when there's no wind) I'll get them with the Paint Shave.

You can also see where I've been hand scrapping the columns.

Did you notice Shalimar inspecting the work?

BTW - I had to stand in the rain to get this picture!!

The east side with SWMBO's father scraping away.

More paint was removed since this picture was taken - mainly along the edges of the moldings and casings.

Do you see the molded lintel on top of the main window? It took me about two hours just to scrape this using the heat gun. Really makes me appreciate the Paint Shaver!

Okay - now for the BIG news!!!!

We found some original house color!!!!!

Yup, you read that right - original house color.

Do you see it?!

It's Robin's Egg Blue and it comes from where the corner mold meets the ceiling of the porch.

After this I did a little more testing and found more on the ceiling. So, true to form for the time period, the ceiling was painted a sky blue color.

Trivia question.... Do you know why they painted porch ceilings, and soffits, a light blue?

Anyway, this is now making us wonder if the house was originally painted a tan/beige color. Why? Because of the tan/beige stuff we are finding under the white!!

What do you all think?

Oh - before I forget... Take a look at the picture again. You can see where I've scraped on the rounded molding - right? Okay, now follow the curve to the right of the scraped area.

See it?

Can you believe how thick the paint is up that high?!?! It is over an 1/8 of an inch thick.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

I promised I would tell you about the 'Nuclear Warhead' that was on it's way as soon as possible. Well, the A-Bomb arrived Saturday morning!! Unfortunately it wasn't until Sunday before I could try it out.

What is this nuke that lays waste to paint you ask? Well let me tell you about it.

This bad-boy of the power tool world is called the Paint Shaver Pro. You can find all the info about it here.

Go to the page and you'll find three video links a little from the top - they are well worth the time to watch. Another excellent video is on YouTube and was made by Scevoli Painting, and can be found here.

This is a general picture of the Paint Shaver Pro I got from the web. It gives a better view of the business end than I could produce.

You should be able to see the round head with the cutting blades. The blades are three tiny carbide triangles with rounded angles.

Wicked, and vicious, looking sucker ain't it?

This is the one I got.

It came from a couple just north of us here in Kansas. They bought it from a guy off eBay but listed it on Craigslist when it became apparent they didn't have time to strip and paint their house.

We will not discuss they cost... Let's just say these things are so pricey that there is a thriving secondary market out there and even these are not cheap.

Let's see what this monster can do to our paint here at the Folly!!

Here is a section of wall on the east side of the porch, just south of the dining room's bay window.

Nice, grungy, and nasty!

And here is a section from the same spot after the Paint Shaver was used.

This took a little over 2 minutes!!

After using this tool you do have to sand the boards because the planning leaves it rough. You should do this anyway so that wasn't a big deal. Also, if you are not careful you can really mess-up a board or create deep gouges in it.

One does need to practice some before using the tool, which I did on some old painted doors, and adjust the cutting depth to what's needed. Due to the various thicknesses of paint on the house this will need to be done periodically.

Oh yeah - another cool thing is that the paint Shaver will remove the paint from the underside of the top lap at the same time. this takes practice, and adjusting as well.

One major, MAJOR, caveat is safety. One should play it safe when using any tool, especially power tools, but this one is different. Let's just say that if your not careful, and your fingers get in the way...well, do you remember that scene in 'Fargo' where the guy fed the other guy into the limb shredder?

SWMBO cringes at the thought.

All-n-all this bad-boy is well worth the investment. I can't wait to see how fast I can get a side knocked down. I'll keep you posted.

I've wanted one for a long time but just couldn't seem to talk myself into getting one. Since I killed my little palm finish sander, and with this project looming, it was decided the time had finally come to get one.

This puppy did a great job sanding the clapboard that had been scrapped and it was fast. I think the Fat-Man in Red did good leaving me this toy.

Now for the pics that might cost me my life.

I took these pics for a couple of reasons....

#1 They show that SWMBO does help on these projects;

#2 They show just how bad the wind is!!

There she is in all her glory! You might note that she is using the new heat gun which worked nicely (the wind caused problems though).

Okay - SWMBO's hair is not flat nor is it beauty pageant big. However, in this pic you can see that not only has the wind flattened her hair it has parted it!!!

Isn't she gorgeous?!

The love of my life!

This is the main picture that has signed my death warrant. She gritched at me for taking it because of what the wind was doing to her hair (note the 'blown back' look) and that she didn't have make-up on. I keep telling her she doesn't need it anyway - she looks great without it.

C'est l'amour c'est la restauration!

Hopefully today MIGHT be a bit better. The morning has started with a thunder storm but it looks like it might be moving off. The main thing I'm hoping for is the arrival of the 'Nuclear Warhead' that's on it's way.

About Me

Well, I was born and raised in a tiny, tiny town in South Central Kansas. I met my wife, Annette, in the 3rd grade and knew she was for me by the 5th grade.
I have managed to get a degree in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeology. She has one in Biology.
We both love old houses and architecture, as well as junk shops and flea markets.
We have been married now for 20 years as of April 4th '07 and share our house with 5 cats and a dog.
Primarily I live to annoy my family and friends AND work on our house.